Implementing a Culture of Knowledge Sharing for Better Knowledge Management

Featured article by Nancy Van Elsacker Louisnord, President of TOPdesk US

Knowledge sharing through your service desk is extremely important and the topic should really receive much more coverage than it does. There are several reasons for this including the reduction of resolution times massively, but it also promotes a better working culture. But to really push this cultural shift through in your organization, there are a few things you need to do.

Make knowledge a part of solving every call

The most important process in really implementing a culture of knowledge sharing in your organization is to not make it an optional practice. Instead, sharing knowledge will now be a mandatory part of solving any call. A part of your operator’s procedure is now to always check the Knowledge Base. If he or she doesn’t find a knowledge item about a specific request, the portal should be updated to help the rest of the team in the future.

It may sound harsh, but it’s not. For sure, at the start it may well be difficult for all operators to remember to add knowledge items every time. In the long run, though, these knowledge items will provide immense economies of scale, make all operator’s lives easier and improve the efficiency of the service desk.

Continuously optimize the knowledge items

A part of the practice of always checking the knowledge base is about making sure that all knowledge base items are up to date. If any item needs updating after a process changed, or the answer can be added to in some way, you should encourage your team to do so.

Think of the knowledge base as something that grows and changes organically over time. This not only puts less pressure on filling the whole base up with articles the day you implement it, but also helps make it into a routine of the service desk, and let’s everyone on the team help each other.

Promote a knowledge sharing culture

Knowledge management is now everyone’s responsibility. Everybody can (and should) edit the knowledge base and create knowledge items. But realistically, not everyone at the service desk will just automatically go ahead and start adding knowledge articles to every call.

To really kick this off, you need some sort of incentives. We recommend some competitions or something similarly engaging, like a “knowledge base contributor of the week” award, or maybe a “focus day” where everyone has to focus on adding knowledge articles after each call they solve. Just be sure you show the team the benefits of the new system, with continuously updated and motivating statistics.

However you do it, the important thing is to promote a culture of knowledge sharing. Because in the end, everyone will benefit from it. Those organizations that use service desks both before and after they implement knowledge sharing as part of their culture, and the difference in team spirit in the department is incredible.

Make knowledge available to end-users

The last step is to look beyond the service desk. Shift left is the process of not only sharing knowledge with other operators, but also with your customers. Using a self-service portal, you can ultimately let users solve frequently occurring, but simple problems themselves – bringing the spirit of knowledge sharing not only to your department but to the whole company.

Nancy Van Elsacker Louisnord is president of TOPdesk US